Sitting on the west bank of the Pemigewasset River, just a north of the still under-repair Blair Bridge, the Country Cow Restaurant and Bar will be featured in an episode of the Food Network’s “Restaurant: Impossible.” The company that produces the show is seeking volunteers to do a variety of tasks for a two-day filming period that starts May 29. (John Koziol Photo)

'Restaurant Impossible'

Campton eatery to get Food Network fix

By JOHN KOZIOLUnion Leader Correspondent

CAMPTON — For the third time in two years, chef Robert Irvine and the team from the Food Network’s ‘Restaurant: Impossible’ will be in the Granite State to help turn around an eatery on the brink of failure.

The Country Cow Restaurant and Bar will get a $10,000 soup-to-nuts makeover beginning Thursday, May 29 and ending — with a grand reopening — just one day later. Shooters Inc., the Philadelphia-based company that produces ‘Restaurant: Impossible’ is looking for both volunteers to help work on the rehab as well as diners.

Per contractual restrictions with the Food Network, no one associated with the project, including the owners of the Country Cow, can speak about the experience until five days after the episode airs. According to Jayson Elmore, who is the production coordinator for Shooters, episodes of ‘Restaurant: Impossible’ will typically be broadcast 8-10 weeks after they are filmed.

Shown Wednesdays on Food Network, ‘Restaurant: Impossible’ was in New Hampshire previously to film episodes about Chatterbox in Windham and Gusanoz Mexican Restaurant in Lebanon. The latter is open, but Chatterbox has closed.

The premise of ‘Restaurant: Impossible’ is straightforward, according to Food Network. Irvine comes in to assess “all of the restaurant’s facets and then overhauls its weakest spots by updating menus, retraining staff and implementing aesthetic changes with the help of his design team, before hitting the streets to tell the community about the improved restaurant.”

A native of England, Irvine, who is an author of two cookbooks, is a renowned chef who worked aboard the royal yacht Britannia and was a competitor on “The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs.”

In addition to ‘Restaurant: Impossible,’ Irvine has been featured on Food Network shows ‘Dinner: Impossible,’ ‘Worst Cooks in America’ and ‘Star Salvation,’ an Internet series on FoodNetwork.com.

To make the final product possible, ‘Restaurant: Impossible’ recruits a variety of volunteers. For the Country Cow “mission,” Shooters Inc. is seeking people to paint, craft, construct, remodel and decorate, with an eye to bringing in the general public in addition to skilled contractors, electricians and painters.

Anyone interested in volunteering should send an email to Elsmore at RIvolunteer@shootersinc.com with the subject line “FN 905 NH VOLUNTEER” by 5 p.m. on May 26. The email should contain the volunteer’s full name, email address, cell phone number, skill set or related profession, and preferred shift or shifts.

Volunteers who are selected to help will receive a confirmation email.

The Country Cow will re-open at 7 p.m., May 30. Reservations can be made by calling the restaurant at 536-1331.